How do you Rebuild... The Montreal Canadiens?

[Gardner McKay]

This is a new series of me, the OP, asking HFBoards to tell me how you rebuild a franchise that either a Dumpster, Cursed, or in Mediocrity.
In this one... how can we revive the Habs?

Most likely you guys will say Fire Bergevin.

Fire Bergevin. Fire the coach. Fire the rest of staff. Fire the hot dog vendors. Fire everyone. Trade almost the entire team. Start from scratch.

 

[Kimota]

Fire everybody. Do a Scorched Earth with the roster.

 

[puckpilot]

It all starts with two moves to bring back former glory.

1- fire Bergevin. Hire Gainey.

2- fire Julian. Hire Vigeneault.

Then to cover your bases. Cue up Pierre Gauthier and Michel Therrien to come in if this doesn't work.

As an aside did anyone else notice how much Julien looks like Bill from King of the Hill?

 

[Rabid Ranger]

This is a tough one....

 

[Gurilla]

Fire management from head to toe, find a way to rid yourself of bad contracts. Take on cap dumps for picks, draft well, rid yourself of that ridiculous french speaking rule.

Burn it to the ground and hope for the best.

 

[me2]

6 years of tanking.

 

[AveryStar4Eva]

New front office, bring in a new coach with focus on developing youth. New scouts as well.

Trade Patches and Byron at the draft. Aim for a combo of picks and prospects.

Trade Weber and Price if the right price is offered. If not keep them around as they are great players and great mentors.

Draft BPA, try to develop a stud centre and defenceman. A couple top five picks would help fill those big holes.

Don't commit term to UFAs. No longer than 3 years unless there is a no brainer deal.

Develop their players and they can add UFAs to put them over the top once they are ready to contend.

Going forward they have lots of big holes to fill. Maximizing the returns on Patches, Weber, and Price will give a better idea of how their rebuild will go.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Draft a good player with their top 5 pick this year
Sign Tavares

 

[DictatorTots427]

obviously first thing is to fire bergevin. trade patches for some decent picks and prospects. trade galchenyuk. he won't succeed there. maybe they get a similar "reclamation" player (nick ritchie?). they won't be able to move the price and weber contracts, so they should keep them as veteran leaders for the rebuild. If they draft some good centers they won't be in as bad a situation as some people think.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Say I got hired as the Habs GM today. First thing is first I'd hire more scouts and make sure the atmosphere is built into a positive one.

I would trade Carey Price in the rebuild and make sure it's for overpayment and cap dump. Big reason being is because of that contract and if you're rebuilding there's no point having him as your goalie because a team that needs goaltending can really use him. Would also trade Shea Weber and make sure it's also for overpayment. Let's just say the only untouchable player is Drouin. I'll just make sure I'm stacked with draft picks and have a good veteran leader (somewhere in the likes of Andrew Ladd) to build up the pack; if Julien isn't a good enough head coach for the job of rebuilding I'd part ways with him and make sure he finds a better job elsewhere and have a coach that has lots of minor experience who can grow with the team.

 

[MSSLYNX]

Got to work on rebuilding dmen too. 5 dmen will be 30+ at next camp. None of them will improve. Cant rely on Mete. Juulsen not ready at all.

 

[Peggy]

trade price

 

[MSSLYNX]

Say I got hired as the Habs GM today. First thing is first I'd hire more scouts and make sure the atmosphere is built into a positive one.

I would trade Carey Price in the rebuild and make sure it's for overpayment and cap dump. Big reason being is because of that contract and if you're rebuilding there's no point having him as your goalie because a team that needs goaltending can really use him. Would also trade Shea Weber and make sure it's also for overpayment..

Go look at all the staff. They dont need more. They need better.
As far as making sure your trades are for overpayment, not sure if you are serious or in lala land. Who will overpay for Price and Weber?

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Go look at all the staff. They dont need more. They need better.
As far as making sure your trades are for overpayment, not sure if you are serious or in lala land. Who will overpay for Price and Weber?

Yeah, that's what I forgot to add, just do a review in the staff and improve it every little spot.

Teams that I can see overpaying for Price and Weber would be teams that need them. I'd also retain up to 25% of their salary to make it work. But I'll just pretend it's Carey Price to Philadelphia or Buffalo, and Shea Weber to the Canucks.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

At this point, the damage has long been done. The Habs are better off retaining a few veterans and going this scorched earth route; firing nearly everyone from the top all the way down to the AHL. Development in Montreal has been utterly abysmal in recent years hence why so few kids are showing much beyond bottom six potential, if even that. Perhaps the biggest pill to swallow would be withholding salary on Weber to facilitate a better return. Yes, that is a significant ask, but the team is essentially dead in the water for the next five years or so. Why not capitalize on trading a top tier player at a reduced cap? Teams would lineup to have Shea Weber at 5M.

 

[Maffew]

Hire a president of Hockey Ops and entrust them to keep Molson out of it. Even more helpful, hire one that "gets" what the Habs are. I can't express enough how much Shanny understanding what the Leafs should be as opposed to what they had become for far too long. Montreal has that same downward swirl we used to have.
Let them take stock of the entire organization in much the same way Shanny did. He mostly sat back and watched how things worked so he knew what was working and what wasn't.

Then he acted. I have no idea who that guy is but I expect Habs fans do.

The other piece of advice I'd offer is do what's right. Not what's cheapest or most popular (or whatever).

Pretty what much I've been wanting for a few seasons now. Molson's been giving Bergevin too much of a leash and his axing is long overdue. As bad as job as Bergevin's done over the past two seasons of slowly tearing the team apart, Molson's let him do it so I place more blame on him. He needs to stay on the business side and keep his hands off the on-ice product. Get someone else to manage the operations side of it and keep Bergevin honest, or whoever else is GM at the time.

 

[Thenameless]

They don't have a lot in the way of movable assets, so they need to acquire them through the draft. Basically, they need to get lucky (first overall would be nice) in the lottery, and draft well after that - for at least two years.

Then, no bad trades, and no bad contracts.

Easier said than done.

I honestly think I could have done a better job than Bergevin has the last several years, and I'm basically a nobody.

 

[MSSLYNX]

Who would be your goalies? 2 undrafted guys in Lindgren and McNiven? A 2nd round bust in Fucale? One of the last player drafted last year in Primeau?
Price will be a Habs next year.

 

[MSSLYNX]

At this point, the damage has long been done. The Habs are better off retaining a few veterans and going this scorched earth route; firing nearly everyone from the top all the way down to the AHL. Development in Montreal has been utterly abysmal in recent years hence why so few kids are showing much beyond bottom six potential, if even that. Perhaps the biggest pill to swallow would be withholding salary on Weber to facilitate a better return. Yes, that is a significant ask, but the team is essentially dead in the water for the next five years or so. Why not capitalize on trading a top tier player at a reduced cap? Teams would lineup to have Shea Weber at 5M.

Depends on what you would be asking in return. My guess is you ask for a younger dman. I’d like to see a few names.

 

[ES]

It's amazing how little they have had superstar forwards since their last Cup. In the last 20 seasons their player has passed 80 points once - Kovalev getting 84 in 2007-08.

 

[ismelofhockey]

This. Hire the best talent available even if they only speak English. Limiting yourself to bilingual candidates will also limit your team's opportunity for success.

Then it's strange that basically any team in the NHL can have success. Because they all do this. How many European GMs or coaches are there in the NHL?

Stop being lazy and find a decent argument. There are more than enough quality candidates who speak French. Bergevin was a rising star when he was hired. There were no obviously better candidates.

 

[Werewolf]

This is a new series of me, the OP, asking HFBoards to tell me how you rebuild a franchise that either a Dumpster, Cursed, or in Mediocrity.
In this one... how can we revive the Habs?

Most likely you guys will say Fire Bergevin.

Came into this thread to find out if the OP is Bergevin.

 

[ismelofhockey]

It starts with a culture change first and foremost.

End the idiotic discrimination against GM's and Coaches who don't speak French.

So tell me, what language problem was holding the Leafs back all those years?

You guys act as though no other team in the NHL has ever had bad years.

 

[Peiskos]

So tell me, what language problem was holding the Leafs back all those years?

You guys act as though no other team in the NHL has ever had bad years.

What does my comment have to do with the Leafs?

I simply mentioned Montreal needs to end its discriminatory policy against anglophone GM's and Coaches.

That was my take on the question of this thread. No need to take it so personally.

 

[PKWeber]

First thing I would do is not trade the first pick this year for Johnathan Marchessault then I rebuild.